What seemed like The Neverending Move.

I've been meaning to jot down my thoughts for awhile now but i've just been super busy. But yesterday was a rather quiet day which involved tidying up and a trip to the laundromat which is just a few blocks away.


On the 29th of September, J and i celebrate our anniversary. It's our 2nd year together. Well technically if you add the 3 years that we knew one another between the age of 13-15, then it would be 5 years. But we base it on the day we met again, so two emotional, adventure-filled yet enriching two years.

We opted for a quiet evening at home with a home-cooked meal. But J surprised me with a simple yet beautiful little white gold pendent with a diamond in the middle.

We've been so tired lately trying to adjust with the 5:30am wake up calls that we pretty much passed out after we had our glass of prosecco courtesy of Christ [pronounced Chr-ist].

And since the 12th, our weekends have been reserved for the 160 km drive to Düsseldorf to pick up whatever boxes can fit in the company van that J was allowed to borrow. And with all the furniture we inherited from the ex and with other items we bought along the way, there would be no way it would squeeze in a big van.

The first of 5 filled to the brim vans.

The brothers.

J's brothers drove down 3 hours to help us with part of the move on the 12th. And we are very grateful as there's no way we could have done it without them. And we're also very thankful that his old and new boss were kind enough to let us use the company vans. We saved a lot of money since one company quoted us about 200 Euros/day.

So if my calculations are right, since the beginning of the month we've driven back about 8 times. So 8 x 160 km = 1,280 km. Now multiply that by 2 [since that includes the way back] and it comes to 2,560 km... at least!

I fully agree that 'Moving' is one of the most stressful things in a persons' life. So much so, that J and i have sworn to stay put and not move for awhile. And if we do, we're hiring professionals!

And i reckon if you really want to see how strong your relationship is, try Moving and starting a new chapter together. Ones' true colours definitely come out and nerves are definitely tested. But hats off to my parents who have moved way too many times from one end of the world to the other. And i'm sure with each move, their marriage got even stronger.


I said my farewells to the apartment [for the 3rd time] and soaked in the Autumn view from our living room. And by the time we were done unloading our things into the new home it was already 2am on Monday morning. And since J had to be in Düsseldorf for an event in the morning he drove back 4 hours later to clean the old flat up and hand over the keys to the caretaker.

So yea, the past few weeks have been a bit brain numbing and stressful.

More so for J since he hasn't had a moments rest. Between balancing his new job, our move and the lack of sleep, it's no wonder his immune system is down and he wasn't feeling well. So not only were our Grumpiness levels sky rocketing but our nerves were definitely stretched and arguments broke out.

But it's all good.

We've voiced out our issues and i shed some tears. But this weekend we can finally rest and take some time out to refocus on ourselves and on our relationship.

...




Oh and this is the house we're staying at. There are 3 other families living there, one of which is the owner of the service apartment. Ours is a 40 square meter apartment. Our bedroom window is the one on the far right and on middle floor. Originally built in 1896. The house has a relatively old odor to it - think 'Grandma'.



View from the top of the steep stairs that squeak and the front door.


The house is directly on a T-junction and the bedroom at the front of the house faces the small street outside. There really isn't that much around there except for a pizza place, a few bakeries and a small supermarket.

We've been here since the 14th of September and will be here till the 17th of October. I'm just looking forward to not living out of my 4 roll-away suitcases and having our own things at arms reach.

...


And today we went to the City Hall [Rathaus] in Guetersloh and registered as residents. So according to the system we have officially moved and are no longer living in Düsseldorf. And as part of the completed registration, we received a welcome pack to the the city which includes a one year free pass to the local library. Let's hope their English section is a lot bigger than the one in Düsseldorf [all 4 book cases]. My guess is 'yes', seeing that there is a British Army base stationed in Guetersloh. Plus i've come across a number of strangers in the city speaking English, so i can only assume there must be a demand.

Seriously, we've been starved of hearing the English language that each time we hear someone speaking, J and i catch ourselves nudging each other and simultaneously saying, "OMG, he/she/they speak(s) English!"

We build up Castles in the Sky and in the Sand...

I'm horrible at remembering names and that includes the names of songs or tracks. Faces i can just about remember or at least try and place in my flashcards-type memory. They say, in order to remember someone's name especially if you're meeting them for the first time is to say their name back in the sentence that you introduce yourself and to at least use their name 3 times within a time frame.

So anyway this post is an example of how a tune is able to bring you back to a particular moment in your past. A representation of a Time in space. And how with a little luck and determination i was able to find the name of a particular track even though i had no idea who it was by and was unable to even remember a verse or a few key words.

Yes i am that useless.

Then by simply stumbling upon a Minimal House Electro Charts website and listening to the samples, i found it!

Yes i put my S-M-R-T cells together.

...

The first time i heard the track was at Rheingold, a club that J and i used to go to in Düsseldorf. They would often would play this tune at some point during the night. And each time i heard it, i would get that feel-good feeling inside. You know how some tunes you hear just makes you feel good. Well this particular tune makes me wanna cry, it's just beautiful.

At Rheingold they would focus spot lights on the massive disco ball hovering over the dance floor, which they would then lower slightly, as if some kind of space ship was about to land and the lights would beam off it. It was always beautiful to watch.

But of course, each time we left the club we wouldn't know the name of the tune or the DJ. So we'd always look forward to returning just so we could hear it.

So yea, over the weekend, J and i drove back to Düsseldorf to pick up more items from our old flat and to basically clean up a bit. And out of the blue on the radio, that particular track came on! It was the first time i heard it outside of the club but immediately my brain associated it was all the good times and summarized the past year in Düsseldorf.

And so here it is, "Sky and Sand" by Paul Kalkbrenner... Enjoy!



The video is snippets of the movie, Berlin Calling. Which was released only 3 weeks ago on DVD and one that i really want to watch. It's in German but it has English subtitles.

Berlin Calling is about a "Berlin electronic music composer Martin (Paul Kalkbrenner), known as DJ Ickarus, is touring with his manager and girlfriend Mathilde (Rita Lengyel) from club to club around the globe and is about to release their biggest album to date. However, all of his plans are thrown out of kilter after Ickarus is submitted to the emergency ward of a psychiatric clinic high on drugs after a gig- A tragicomedy in Berlin of today." [source]

Not quite Home.

Where oh where does time go? J started at his new job on the 1st of September and so he had to go to Guetersloh first. J managed to find a room for only 21 Euros/night - which is the cheapest you can get. Or if you're really desperate or short on cash you have the option of sharing a room with another guest, much like being at Camp or at a boarding school. And guests must share the 2 bathrooms and a kitchen.

I decided to drive down with J on the 31st of August and spent the night since we had to sign the contract to our new place. Plus i thought i'd check out the room since we're still in search for a service apartment from next week onwards.

So this is the entrance as you drive in. Behind the gates is a massive garden which one just drives right through and one just simply parks on the grass. Basically it's a 4-storey house owned by a widow and her son of which they rent out the rooms.


And to utilize space and increase availability of rooms, they converted the attic into a bedroom. But that wasn't our room, our room was through the kitchen...


Yes that is a bed in the kitchen! I feel sorry for the dude that ends up staying there. Imagine how weird that would be waking up to a room full of strangers making their breakfast.


And that was our double room with a huge wardrobe and a chandelier.

But since our appointment with our landlord wasn't until an hour or so after we arrived, we thought it would be polite if we introduced ourselves to the other guests staying at the house.


They were outside in the garden/garage playing roulette with the owner. All we wanted to do was say 'hi' but before we knew it, they were dealing us chips and we had to play.

And this was my winning bet...


I guess Lady Luck was on my side because i ended up winning and my prize was a bottle of white wine. Which i didn't end up drinking and left it in the fridge for J.

So yea, we figured the place is not exactly what we're looking for. For one, the idea of sharing a kitchen and bathroom with strange men doesn't quite appeal to me. But what topped it off was the frosted glass panel in one of the bathroom doors which basically invites anyone who walks past to have a perv!

I'm sorry but i like my privacy and i don't really feel like being watched when i get out of the shower.

...

We have our current apartment in Duesseldorf till the 30 September but we're planning to move out this Saturday. Both of his brothers are driving down to help us move since paying movers would be way too costly. However, our new apartment that we're moving into won't be available till the middle of October, so we have to find a service apartment that we can stay in for 5 weeks or so.

But we finally managed to find a small service apartment online in the neighboring city since there doesn't seem to be any in Guetersloh itself. And staying in a hotel would cost at least 3 times as much, if not more and that would definitely bust our budget.

So whilst J's been away, i've been occupied with packing and sorting through our things. It hasn't quite hit me yet that we'll be leaving in a few days even though i'm surrounded by boxes and our shelves our empty.

Anyway, it turns out that anyone who moves apartment is entitled to 2 days off from work, so J is coming home tonight. Yippee!

But as part of the company's attempt to get to know the bosses, they've planned a dinner tonight whereby the bosses, which includes him, must prepare and cook a dish in front of the other bosses. J's in charge of making Crêpes so let's hope our practice run last week did him any good.

...

I can't believe how excited i am to see J. It's somewhere border line of having butterflies in my stomach and like going on a date.

This has been the longest time we haven't seen one another not including when we did the long distance relationship back in 2007 when i was still in Malaysia and he was in Germany.

Well i'm going to do some last minute tidying to keep myself occupied until i hear the buzzer. If there's no accidents or traffic on the motorway, i reckon he'll be here in an hour and a half. So yea, it's true, distance can make the heart grow fonder.